Finally, the ponies, Dr. Dawson and Olivia caught up to an excitable Toby with Basil riding on his back, and began to wander through the streets of London, with Toby hot on Fidget’s trail. Toby sniffed... and sniffed... and sniffed... and sniffed some more...
...until he finally caught onto a much stronger scent trail, howling to the dreary sky before bolting down the street, barking as everyone hung on for their lives. “The thrill of the hunt, eh, Dawson?!” Basil shouted as Dr. Dawson hung on for dear life on Toby’s tail. “Q-Quite!” Dr. Dawson replied. “Aw yeah!” Zipp cheered. “It’s just like riding the Marestream, guys! Just bumpier and furrier!”
“You… could… say… that!” Hitch said, trying to keep hold of Sparky and keep from flying off Toby’s back as Basil let out a cheer. “Oh-hoo-hoo! Our peg-legged quarry can’t be far now!”
“I hope so!” Misty groaned. “I’m honestly not sure how much more I can take!”
XXXXXXXX
As the ponies and their new friends hung on tight to Toby as he dashed them off to their destination, Fidget was inside a toy store, removing the uniforms from small British soldier toys, stuffing them into a sack before checking the list Ratigan gave him, just to make sure he didn't forget anything. “Get the following. Tools, check. I got tools. Gears, double check. I got gears. Girl…”
That’s when Fidget remembered that he still needed to get Olivia too, making a check and then erasing it. “No, didn’t get girl. Uniforms… heh heh… I got plenty of uniforms!”
Suddenly, a loud sound pierced the air-- a dog's howl. And if one were to be precise, it was Toby howling. That alerted Fidget that someone was here as well, and he needed to slip away before he was caught. “Oh no, oh no!” he said to himself. “I gotta hide! I gotta hide! Ooh, I gotta hide!”
Fidget grabbed the soldiers hats before skedaddling out of the room at the sound of Toby’s howl, unknowingly dropping Ratigan’s list in the process.
XXXXXXXX
Back outside, Toby stopped outside the toyshop window, while Basil and the ponies leapt off of Toby’s muzzle. “Splendid job, Toby!” Azurine smiled. “The scoundrel who took Olivia’s father must be in here.”
Olivia stood on Toby's muzzle and held out her arms towards Basil, who gave her a look of annoyance, but held out his arms to her. Olivia quickly jumps and Basil caught her just as quick, setting her down and nudging her forward.
As Dr. Dawson moved toward Toby’s nose, the basset hound began to growl at him again, deeper than before. Dr. Dawson tipped his hat to Toby in an act of goodwill, and prepared to make a leap to the window, but Toby gives a deliberate sneeze, which sent Dr. Dawson tumbling head over heels, hitting Izzy and Misty and knocking them down. “Don’t worry!” Izzy chirped. “We’re okay!”
Basil sighed, glad they were all right before looking toward the dog responsible. “Now, Toby… sit!”
Then, to Basil’s dismay, Toby remained standing with a wagging tail. Basil marched back down the window still and stood in front of his dog, speaking more strictly this time. “Toby. Sit.”
“Sit, Toby!” Hitch said, causing Toby to promptly sit. “Good boy…” Basil shot Hitch a jealous look before walking away. “You be good now,” Olivia told the dog. “We’re going to find my father.”
Basil and Zipp looked toward the window, the former humming as to see how Fidget was able to get inside. In that moment, Basil spotted a very small hole in the glass. “Ah-ha! Here is our friend’s entrance!”
“In… there?” Misty asked. “Basil, how in the world could Fidget have possibly…?”
Basil simply responded by sticking the tip of Misty's horn into the hole and pushing her back, causing a doorway in the glass to be opened. “Wow, heh…” Misty said a tad awkwardly. “I won’t ever doubt Basil again.”
Basil immediately shushed her before climbing in through the window, followed by the ponies, Olivia and Dawson, and Misty pulled the door closed before following her friends inside.
Inside, they walked cautiously through the store, but Dr. Dawson didn’t look where he’s going and bumped into something. “Ooh! I beg your pardon,” he said. “I...”
Izzy tapped his shoulder, and the group looked up to see that Dr. Dawson had bumped into a large doll, and that the toys around them were gigantic. “Oh my Lumi-Bloom...” Azurine said in awe. “Upon my word, I... I’ve never seen so many toys!”
“Behind any of which could lurk a bloodthirsty assassin!” Basil said, ominously peeking out from behind the doll's leg. “So please, all of you… be very careful.”
As Basil and Zipp snuck around the toyshop, the other ponies snuck behind them, with Olivia and Dr. Dawson trailing at the rear. They started to climb up and fly up a tall ladder, leading them to a higher shelf.
The ponies, Basil and Dawson quietly crept down the shelf, when a sudden crashing noise from behind caused them to freeze and Dawson to leap into Basil's arms. They looked behind them and see that Olivia and Izzy had turned on a toy music box, and were happily watching the noisy fireman band play. Utterly annoyed, Basil shoved the heavy Dawson off of him and onto the ponies, leaping for the control lever and shutting the toy off. “PLEASE!!” Basil scolded Olivia and Izzy before whispering to them. “Quiet...”
“Got it, Basil-Wasil,” Izzy whimpered with a slight nod as Basil turned to the other ponies and Dr. Dawson. “Don’t let this girl out of your sight!”
As the ponies simply nodded, Dr. Dawson saluted as Basil walked past. He looked to Olivia, who was giving a playful salute of her own, and took her hand. “Now, Olivia dear, stay close.”
“Yeah,” Zipp said quietly. “Before Mr. Grouchy Detective gets mad at all of us.”
XXXXXXXX
From above, Fidget watched the group move across a chessboard, and watched Basil pause by the rook, moving it one space forward. “Checkmate.”
“Basil!” Hitch cried, pointing down at the floor. “I think Sparky and I found something!”
Basil immediately scurried to them and took a closer look, smiling as he inspected the same footprints he found earlier. “Ah-ha! Evidence of our peg-legged adversary,” he said before following the footprints to the naked soldiers. “Hmm… how very odd.”
“What is it, Basil?” asked Misty curiously. “Isn’t it painfully obvious, my dear? These dolls have been stripped of their uniforms,” Basil observed. “And not by any child, either.”
The ponies spared each other a glance... what would Fidget, or Ratigan, for that matter, want with soldier uniforms? Basil looked over his shoulder, having seen more strange evidence. “Hello...”
He looked around the insides of mechanical toys, where all the gears are missing. “Someone has taken the liberty of removing the clockwork mechanisms from these toys.”
“This is getting more and more mysterious by the minute,” Zipp said with heavy thought. “And this has all been done recently... so the thief is still here.”
Fidget's eyes widened as he saw the team discovering his handiwork, and he darted away. Meanwhile, Azurine was walking around with Sunny when she seemed to step on something. “Huh?”
“What is it, Azurine?” Sunny asked Azurine lifted the paper so they could both see it. “Huh... I'm not sure,” Azurine shrugged. “It looks like a list of some kind. But I'm not sure what it means.”
“Basil!” Sunny waved to the mouse detective. “Basil!”
“Please, I’m trying to concentrate.”
“But, Basil,” Zipp began to argue, “this could be--”
Suddenly music boxes began playing, and winding toys were moving along the shelves. A puppy poked its head out of a hat and barked; a bunny was moving an egg shell up and down as a baby chick chirped inside. It then rolled by a fiddle player and a carousel.
To the ponies' wondrous eyes, it seemed like every toy in the shop was operating on its own.
Olivia, seeing some bubbles, followed them, separating herself from her friends. A small Dumbo toy was the source of the bubbles, and there is a mouse-sized baby carriage that was slowly rocking back and forth.
Olivia approached it, and as she reached up to pull the blanket back, Fidget lunged at her threateningly, a bonnet on his head, causing her to scream!
XXXXXXXX
From across the room, the others heard Olivia’s shriek of terror, Pipp gasping in full alarm. “OLIVIA!!”
Fidget stuffed Olivia into a small sack with the uniforms and gears, and began to make his getaway, leaving Sunny to take charge. “Basil, Dr. Dawson! Follow us! We'll try and stop Fidget before he reaches the exit!”
But instead, Basil pushed ahead of them, nearly knocking Sunny over. As they watched Basil disappear behind a book, he quickly changed direction as a large Ferris wheel toy was rolling towards them. “Ah ah ah ah!! Look out!”
Basil and Dr. Dawson leapt out of the way while the ponies leapt to the side of it and managed to pursue Fidget as the two remaining mice crashed onto an Around the World path toy. A large doll is falling right over them, and they run for their lives, but only moved the paper path below their feet.
Just as the doll was about to crush them, they reached the end of the path and were able to leap off just as the doll broke. A piece of the porcelain doll’s face rolls toward Dawson, its eye blinking at him.
Basil rushed by, but Fidget has wound up a toy jouster, which moves towards them with an outstretched spear. Basil and the ponies were able to leap on a trumpet above them, but the jousting spear had caught Dr. Dawson by his jacket, and he was hurled towards a dart board, pinned to it.
Basil looked behind him, and his head is crashed between the cymbals of the firemen band music box, which had started up again. Basil stumbled over to a pile of marbles and trips over them, causing them to scatter, and several marbles fly towards Dawson, one even hitting him on his head.
It seemed like it would be up to the ponies now...
XXXXXXXX
Fidget was just about to make his getaway when he opened the opening in the window, and was nearly eaten by Toby, who barks and growls at the exit. Fidget slammed the window shut and was about to escape another way when a blast of magic caused him to freeze...
...where he saw seven ponies in front of him, looking dangerously mad. “The game is up, Fidget. Let Olivia out of the sack and tell us where Ratigan is holding her father,” Zipp said, spreading her wings, “or else there's gonna be a mess of trouble coming your way.”
“Ha ha ha! No way, Jose!”
Fidget immediately leapt onto Azurine's back, causing her to scream and try to buck him off as the bat pulled on her mane. “Get this winged brute off of me!”
“I got this!” Pipp delivered a hard punch to Fidget’s jaw, causing him to fall off of Azurine and to scurry up the cash register. “Hurry, ponies!” Misty cried. “We can't let him get away!”
XXXXXXXX
Basil had regained consciousness by that point and joined the pony crew on the bat’s tail. He jumped onto a spring horse, and used it to jump from shelf to shelf and over the ponies themselves. “Stop, you fiend!”
Basil soon reached the top shelf, falling off the horse at the base of a large pyramid of building blocks. On opposite sides, Basil and Fidget began climbing to the top. Fidget made high, deaperate leaps at the top, catching the ledge of the open sky roof.
Basil tried to leap for him, but as he did, the blocks tumbles and dell, taking Basil down with them. Fidget chuckled evilly and throws the tied sack on top of the roof, and climbed out, ignoring Olivia’s desperate cries for help as he began to sing, heading for Ratigan’s lair. “I got the gears, I got the tools, I got the uniforms, I got the girl, heh-heh-heh-heh!”
It seemed as if Ratigan’s schemes would most definitely succeed with Olivia and her father in his grasp... unless the ponies, Dr. Dawson and Basil could crack the clues in time.